Thursday 21 October 2010

One of the toughest days yet….

We woke up at 7:30am but Nina, Nuala, Heather and Iman actually got out of bed at 8:30! We got our well earned shower in the onshore facilities and when we were in the showers we all felt as if we were swaying!. As we were getting changed we got scared by a seemingly mad cleaning lady but she was only trying to be friendly!!

Emma, Phoebe and Natalie cooked a great breakfast of scrambled egg, sausage and Karen’s amazing toast with no accidents this time. We then got ready into our oilies and set off out of the lock in Whitehaven for Piel Island.

We had a very rocky first half hour or so when everyone got soaked. It then calmed down a bit but with still very big waves. We sailed all the way to Piel Island and Ian said that we had experienced the toughest day that he had ever been on with year 8 crew, on Tenacity! It took us 6 hours and we are all hardened sea dogs now. Although we did all sleep most of the way and if we didn’t we were just lying down trying to shelter from the elements.
Although the average windspeed was a force six, this was our strongest gust of the day:

We didn’t have any lunch today so we are now all munching on a variety of things such as crisps, sweets and apples. Natalie, Emma and Phoebe are making fish and chips for tea. Phoebe has only just started helping after trying to go to sleep but told not to otherwise she wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.

We have all really enjoyed our trip. Although we have all missed our families and are looking forward to seeing them we want to stay on Tenacity because in a weird way it feels like home now. Though we have suffered with the weather and seasickness we will never forget this trip.

By Nina and the rest of the crew helped ;)

Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.bsspatterdalehall.com/

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Long day

This morning we were woken up at 7:30am to find out that someone had blocked the toilet so we spent half the morning trying to unblock it(well Ian did).

For breakfast we were making pancakes, we made lots of different combinations including Nuala’s chocolate spread, nutella, peanut butter, golden syrup, banana and sugar. Iman and Heather were flipping the pancakes and were failing miserably.


We set off at 11:00 for Whitehaven, it was a fun journey, and we got to have a go at steering the boat which was great fun. Luckily no one was too ill. We had jacket potato for our lunch we got to eat it on deck.

After lunch we had the chance to have all of the sails out which was really good, there were waves so big we got thrown from one side to the other when Ian said it wasn’t even that bad! To pass the time on the 8 hour journey we sang lots of songs from the Beatles to High School Musical.

For tea we had turkey korma with rice and naan bread, YUM YUM! We then retired to a well deserved sleeping bag.

Phoebe and Nuala
 


Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.bsspatterdalehall.com/

Tuesday 19 October 2010

THE DAY WE DISCOVERED THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SEA…

After getting up at the crack of dawn – 7am – we shoved on all our recently soaked layers and set off into the horizon, only to meet a big steel gate – the locks…

For breakfast, we had cereal then had a bacon butty once we were inside the locks. After half an hour of sailing most of us had buckets in our arms, throwing up every now and then, these people included (in this order): Heather, Nina and Phoebe. Most of us found it easier to look out at sea, to the land, because it was such a rocky boat journey. But they are all feeling all right now. Every second of the journey all you could hear was ‘are we there yet!?’(The noise was mainly coming from Natalie).

Unfortunately we could not make it to the Isle of Man today because of the wind direction; we are now in Piel Island and are staying here over night… when we got to the Island, we made hot dogs for lunch – YUMMY! We then went in the dinghy again to get to the island. Karen showed us how to fall over in spectacular style! We played hide and seek and human dominoes!!! Nina got followed by a dog (it was chewing her coat!!!).
Now we are making chocolate tiffin, and whilst we are sitting in their room, typing this, the bow group are making us some Spaghetti Bolognaise – mmmmmm…. better go get some food then!!!!!!

By Natalie and Heather – and the rest of the crew xxx

Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.bsspatterdalehall.com/

Monday 18 October 2010

Dinghy day

We were up early this morning after Iman having had only 4 and a half hours sleep.
For breakfast we had eggy bread it was gorgeous with a side order of ketchup or sugar. After washing up we started to appreciate the things parents do for us at home or as Phoebe said “It’s called a dishwasher.”
Next we got into the gear for the sailing training; we all looked like tellytubbies plodding around. Then we learnt the ropes to attach the boat to the side. When it came to practice it would have helped if the wind had not been gusting at over 30 knots.
While we worked we sang sea songs “when I was 1 I bit my thumb the day I went to sea….etc.”
Today we stayed in Glasson dock all day (a bit of a letdown but we still had fun), we are looking forward to moving on tomorrow … maybe to the Isle of Man!!!!
Later on we went dinghy driving! Natalie went round and round in circles (she didn’t really catch on; she needs to practice pushing and pulling)!
At the end of dinner Ian managed to pour the uneaten rice onto the floor (similar to when Natalie fell onto the cooker and spilt the pan of soup at lunch.) For desert we had the legendary chocolate fondue!
Now we’re munching on chocolate and haribos, whilst singing to the radio. 
By Iman and Emma…. (the rest of the crew helped ;) )
Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.bsspatterdalehall.com/

Sunday night update

Just a quick blog from the skipper, Ian, to let you know the girls have all settled in well. Judging by the smiles and laughter they are squealishly excited and happy. The young ladies surprised us by wanting to go to bed early saying, and I quote, “I am tired”. Just after 10 silence reigned and sleep came easily.
Karen, Ian and I discussed what to do to-morrow and decided the best option was to stay in Glasson dock. With sunrise being at 07.33 we think there is a possibility that the lock gate may not open with such an early high tide. That combined with the low neap tide and an unkind forecast leads us to believe that we have made the safe decision. The girls initially had long faces but when we explained why and that their day would be very full with safety briefs, boat familiarisation, a ride and steer of the dinghy and outboard and a bit of mooring practice on Tenacity (only in the marina) the smiles returned and the high pitched raucous hubbub was soon testing the adults ear drums!!
You can look forward to a blog from the girls on Monday night.
Skipper Ian.

Read more about Sail Training on board Tenacity of Bolton at http://www.bsspatterdalehall.com/

Sunday 17 October 2010

Map of last year 8 voyage of 2010

Friday 15 October 2010

Friday 15th October


We’re all tired!! A leisurely last breakfast of pancakes before the final clean up begins. We have had a really enjoyable week and have enjoyed being able to steer the boat and explore Piel Island. We all struggled with the knots and did not enjoy the coiling, but were really pleased when we got it in the end. We loved seeing the seals and the porpoises. The washing up was everyone’s least favourite activity, but just became part of boat life. And we have enjoyed all the food we have created…especially being able to bake so much lovely food for our tea breaks. Its been a great journey from Fleetwood to the Isle of Man, to Whitehaven in Cumbria and then Piel Island and finishing back at Glasson Dock.


The crew of Georgia, Abi, Serena, Ellie, Brianna, Bella and Georgi would like to say Goodbye…





Thursday 14th October

After another great breakfast, we headed off Tenacity in the dinghy to explore Piel Island and have an investigation of the castle and the beach. We had a great game of hide and seek, looked at the mussels on the beach and saw some very cool pigs!! We headed back and left our last evening destination to head back towards Glasson dock and the end of our adventure at sea. On leaving Piel Island we saw lots of seals on the beach, which were amazing. While we were stood on deck watching the seals a boat went by and the wash created a wave that made all those on the front deck wet…oh yuk! We looked out for porpoises, hoping to see some again as we had when heading south from Whitehaven but today we went so lucky.

Downstairs turned in to a food factory and while on the move we made scones and had them warm on deck with mugs of tea. Then we made fresh bread, some rocky road tiffin and more scones for later on! We arrived at Glasson and took all hands back up on the deck to help head into the docks. The expert crew members managed to tie their own bowlines in the ropes, secure the fenders and coil ropes…all without assistance. Throwing ropes to the side proved a little challenging but we got there in the end.

After some down time for a well earned cuppa on deck, we started the food factory up again and set to preparing our final feast…a lovely meal of pork, stir fry and rice. The cooking crew managed to learn some new dance moves and use just about every pot in the kitchen, but they produced an amazing meal for us all. After a mass washing up session we settle down to chocolate fondue and a quiz night!! We finished our evening off with a flying lantern before heading towards our beds for the last time.

Ellie says:
‘Tenacity is big enough to loose things in but still small enough to step on people’

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Today we woke up and ate breakfast. Then we practised circuits around the Whitehaven harbour. In Whitehaven there was a huge navy ship behind us, they had managed to get a rope stuck around their propeller so they had to get scuba divers to undo the rope. We are all now experts at mooring up. We showed the navy how it’s done! Afterwards we set off on our way to Piel Island.


We were all taught to coil ropes, and many knots, which were very useful.

For lunch we all enjoyed bacon and egg butties, made by Georgi and Georgia. Afterwards we baked chocolate cornflake cakes, and ginger biscuits.

We did the man overboard drill by throwing ‘Bob’ the fender over the side of the ship. We managed to get him back to safety quite quickly. We then went to the front of the boat, and had fun singing many songs at the top of our voices! Finally we sat down at the end of a long day and tucked into spaghetti bolognaise. The best day yet!









Tuesday 12 October 2010

Tuesday 12th October


 






Another early start to a large breakfast and a look at Douglas in the daylight. We cleaned to boat and stepped onto land to have a look around and collect some supplies. We watched the tide heading in and saw the large ferries for the island. It was then time to go back to the boat to head out to sea. It wasn’t as sunny today but thankfully it didn’t rain. We saw lots of birds and several other large boats, and then in the distance Cumbria appeared. Today we were aiming for Whitehaven and had to be on time to get into the harbour and through the lock gates. Now we have cleaned the boat, the galley is sparkling, and are making dinner – fish and special Tenacity chips. Tomorrow our destination is Piel Island.

Monday 11 October 2010

Monday 11th October

We woke early to find we had a busy day ahead…starting with breakfast! We had the chance to head for showers but all decide to pass and just clean our teeth instead. At breakfast we talked about our plan for the day and discovered we were going to sail to the Isle of Man, somewhere none of us had been before! We were aiming to sail to a place called Douglas on the Isle of Man, and it was going to take us about ten hours to get there. Along the way we all helped to get the sails out, and learnt how to tie knots and coil ropes. While sailing we made tea – so we could eat on deck while still heading for the Isle of Man. This proved very challenging but we all enjoyed the meal at the end. After tea, the sun had set and the stars came out – we had an amazing view of all the stars in the sky as we sailed along in the dark and could see the whole the the Milky Way. We arrive in Douglas late but happy, and glad to work towards our beds.

Sunday 10 October 2010

Sunday 10th October

We arrived in the evening at Fleetwood Dock all excited for what waited ahead. Our first thoughts of the boat was that it was much bigger than we expected – we had imagined a cramped boat with no space to move but it felt like the opposite. And we were pleased to find there was lots of food on board as well. After a look around, we settled down to here some safety briefings and move information about the boat and we started to get use to the facilities and our home for the week. To our delight, we were soon greated with sausages, mash, gravy and vegetables for our evening meal, followed by chocolate cake and hot chocolate. All full from our evening meal, and with all the pots washed we collected our life jackets for the following day and then decided it was time for bed and some sleep before we set out on our adventure.

Saturday 9 October 2010

Map of Autumn Year 8 Week 4

Friday 8 October 2010

Morecambe Bay strikes again

Unfortunately due to a problem with the lock gates at Fleetwood this morning we are having to finish our trip here. The delay caused would have meant we would miss the lock gate at Glasson Dock so the bus is coming here to pick the crew up. A disappointing end to our trip.

Thursday 7 October 2010

Arr thats what wash boards are for!

Who needs showers when you have sea spray?


Today, we set sail at 8am for Fleetwood after we were all suited and booted- we were ready to go. Up on deck, the waves were choppy and we were thrown all over the place; with the amount of sea spray it meant we didn’t have to have another shower! We even had our own wave detector system: every time we saw a wave … SCREAM! Unfortunatly we didn't get the wash board in in time and ended up with a wave down the main hatch, oops!

When we arrived at Fleetwood, around half one and because it was Emily’s birthday we made her a chocolate cake and Dave was kind enough to flip us up some pancakes because he wanted to give us a treat by that time dinner was ready with classic fish & chips. We had the cake for dessert and Ian decided to pop a party popper and with the shock Natalie smeared the chocolate cake all over her face!!! Now it’s the last night on tenacity, thank you for an amazing 5 days!

Some pictures from this week.

Birthday Girl steers us towards Fleetwood.


Wednesday 6 October 2010

O to be in the Clyde...

Today, we did a lot of things including eating strawberry laces (Laura’s) baking cookies and rocky road and enjoying making features out of Piel island’s castle ruins. The reason why we hadn’t moved was because there were very high winds-32.8 knots-very bad! Also it would have been an unpleasant ride. We played Articulate, which was lots of fun- watching people trying to demonstrate what the card said.
Unfortunately Stephanie was the unlucky one, who was sick quite a few times, but seems to be fine now. We had jacket potatoes for lunch which was okay. We had a puffin fight which only lasted a few minutes and then it turned into American slaps! All our hands were sore. We all had so many laughs today we could have wet ourselves, Hannah laughed her head off. Then we had curry for dinner which contained hidden broccoli! After all that we had a few hours of made up songs and now we are off to watch X-men-yeah!!!

Tuesday 5 October 2010

The day of BIG waves

Today we were woken up at 6:45 in the morning. We set off from Glasson dock at 7:30 am and went in the lock while we waited in there we had a bacon butty for part 2 of breakfast. We put the sails up and switched the engine off, as we left the Lune Channel and met the open sea. We sailed for about two hours before Emily threw up. Thankfully she was the only one to be sick on the whole journey, but everyone else apart from Emma felt a bit queasy. The waves were really big and choppy. Steph got a go at steering but decided to stop after a while as she was feeling sick. We carried on sailing through the big waves until we reached Peil Island.
We had sandwiches and soup for lunch and then we made some scones. They tasted good. After that the aft team made dinner whilst the other team got the dingy ready to go to the island. When we got to the island we saw some pigs they squealed as we walked up to them. Then we played hide and seek and Natalie won. We walked around the old castle and Laura fell down a rabbit hole but she didn’t end up in Wonderland. Then we came back to the boat and ate dinner. The skipper dropped a piece of pasta in Emma’s welly, which didn’t go down well with Emma.

Monday 4 October 2010

Choc fondue day

We are all enjoying the trip so far! Emma had a bad first day… She stood on a screw, she forgot to cook the sausages, and she nearly broke the kitchen sink, and couldn’t get enough sleep. However she is ok now.
For tea we had sausage mash and veg. it was nice!!! After we had all eaten and chatted we went to bed. Everyone slept well, but some of the beds were a little small. Steph hit her head a few times throughout the night. But overall the first night was a lot of fun!!!
Today (Monday) we all had a shower, it was surprisingly warm. After fitting life jackets and waterproofs we cleaned the deck and then learnt how to tie several knots such as the figure of eight the round turn and two half hitches and finally the bowline knot. All this came in very useful when we manoeuvred the boat to make it easier to get sailing tomorrow morning. After several rounds of the marina we pulled into Tenacity’s berth. Laura and Hannah had the task of jumping on to the jetty and tying the boat to it. They both really enjoyed it!!! Then we took down the fore sail and replaced it with a smaller one for the autumn. Even though it sounded easy it took us a good 45 minutes to complete it. We had to unfurl all the sail and fold it neatly on the pontoon. Molly was doing a very good job, of pulling the sail up - it helped Ian a lot. Eilidh helped fold and hold the sail so it would fit in the appropriate bag. Then had a wrestling match with it to get it into the cupboard.
Then it was lunch time. After we had prepared lunch Natalie ‘accidentally’ knocked all the cheese sandwiches onto the floor. Then once they had been remade and taken onto the deck she stood on one in her wellies. But we laughed it off and got stuck in!!!
We had a chocolate fondue for pud.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Map of Autumn 2010 trip 3